FLOURISHES

Happy FOURTH OF JULY everybody!  Thanks to all of the wonderful men and women in our Armed Forces who give so much of themselves to protect our freedoms.  My son in law has done 2 tours of duty in Iraq.  Having him in our family has made me even more keenly aware of the sacrifices our veterans and their families make to defend this country.

I hope everyone has been enjoying this holiday weekend!  But, here's another reason to celebrate...it's MONDAY and time for another Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge!  This week's theme....A FLOURISH!

Let's see....there's the obvious way to use a flourish and then there's....hmmm....arms!!!  How about using flourishes to make arms?!?

 This sassy Steampunk Diva has a lot of Tim Holtz' elements in her construction.  Her body is stamped and cut from Tim's Haberdashery Stamp Set on to a piece of kraft paper.  Her arms are Tim Holtz' Mini Flourishes cut from Grungeboard.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  I better tell you about the background for this wall hanging and the more conventional use of flourishes first!

The background for this piece is a sheet of that lovely Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante paper adhered onto a chipboard cut out.  I distressed the G45 paper with Tumbled Glass and edged it with Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.  I then stamped some really delicate flourishes from Tim Holtz' Fancy Flourish Stamp Set randomly around the edges of the the wall hanging.  These were embossed with Gold Embossing Powder.  I love how they turned out.  They are there, but they are wispy; not overpowering ...just blend in perfectly to the background.  Finally, I attached a piece of copper chain to the top using Long Fasteners and I added two copper gears from Tim Holtz' Sprockets and Gears as the finishing touch.

This Diva's tiara is a Weathered Clock Die cut from Shrink Plastic.  (oh my gosh...I love that stuff!  I was playing with it this past weekend and had a blast!  Warning!!!  It's addicting!)  After I shrunk it using a heat gun, I painted it with a Gold Paint Dabber.  I also added little watch parts to her hair to compliment the gadgets and gear that make up her hair on the stamp itself.  Other than the lady's face, all of the stamping I did on her was done with Gold and Copper Embossing Powders that I simply sprinkled onto the stamped image then heat embossed it.  That way, you get a more random effect for a metallic look...which I like.

Her flourish "arms" are displaying a conglomeration of little charms I made.  I'm sure you'll recognize the little birdcage and bird.  It's Tim's Caged Bird Die cut out of Shrink Plastic.  After I made it shrink, I colored it using Paint Dabbers.  The little holes remained in tact so I added little shell pink pearl charms to the bottom of the cage.  The little wire nest (on the opposite side) is a technique I learned from Tim during our "Ideaology Intrique" class at Stampers Ink a couple of weekends ago.  I love it!  I'm also sort of on a charms kick right now...thanks to one of my crafting buddies, Shirley of Shirley Hall Designs.  (She's a bad influence on me because I see her beautiful work and it gets me wanting to crank out my jewelry stuff again...and of course, I have to buy yet MORE supplies.  Isn't that how that goes? haha)  

So anyway, I wanted to somehow incorporate some charms onto this week's piece....perfect solution...flourishes for arms!  I finished off this piece with that wonderful saying from Wendy Vecchi's A Form Of Art Stamp Set... "Her style was SASSY with just a bit of ATTITUDE."  I thought that sentiment fit this steampunk Diva to a tee!

So there you have it, my take on "FLOURISHES".  Now it's YOUR turn to show some flourishes!  Check out the wonderful creations that the Design Team has waiting for you at  Simon Says Stamp and Show.  My Design Teammates "bring it" for you every week!  Their creativity never ceases to amaze me!!!  All of the wonderful ideas and products they use....WOW!  So, get your ink on and create something fabulous!  Link your design to our wonderful sponsor's blog and you could be the winner of Simon Says Stamp and Show's every generous prize of .... 

That's right!!!  A $50.00 credit voucher!!  And...if your creation is chosen as one of the best three submitted for the week, you will be awarded our TOP 3 Blinkie to proudly be displayed on your blog.  So what are you waiting for...show us your FLOURISH!